What to do between sessions
You train with a coach for two or three hours a week. The other hundred and sixty-five decide most of the result, and a plan that ignores them is selling appointments.
This is the part most people never get given, and it is the part that separates paying for training from paying for supervision.
What a between-sessions plan should look like
- Two or three specific things, not a second programme. Something to practise, something to move, something to notice.
- Written down somewhere you will actually see it.
- Small enough that a bad week does not break it entirely.
- Reviewed at the next session, which is what makes it real rather than advice.
The three that work for almost everybody
Walking, in quantity, because it is the highest-return thing most people are not doing. One movement practised without load, for five minutes, because skill is built by repetition rather than by intensity. And sleep treated as part of the plan rather than as what is left over, because it changes what the next session is capable of.
What it should not be
A second full workout you have to fit in. If the plan between sessions is as demanding as the sessions, it will be the thing that gets dropped, and dropping it tends to take the sessions with it.
How to tell whether yours is real
Ask what you should do this week and see whether the answer is specific. Vague encouragement to stay active is not a plan, and it usually means nobody has thought past the hour they are being paid for.
Where this does not apply
If you are managing an injury, the between-sessions work may belong to a physiotherapist rather than a trainer, and the two plans need to know about each other. Doing both independently is how people end up doing twice the volume nobody intended.
What to do when the week falls apart
Do the smallest version rather than nothing. A ten-minute walk on the day the plan was an hour keeps the thread intact, and the thread is what you are actually protecting. People who train for years are not people who never miss; they are people whose missed weeks stay one week long.
How this should show up at the next session
Your trainer should ask. Not as an accusation, as information: whether the between-sessions work happened tells them whether the plan was realistic, and a plan nobody can follow is a plan that needs changing rather than a person who needs more discipline.
If nobody ever asks, the between-sessions plan is decorative, and you are back to buying appointments.
Common questions
How much should I do between sessions?
Little enough that a bad week does not break it. Two or three specific things beats a second programme.
Is walking really useful?
For most people it is the highest-return thing they are not currently doing.
What if my trainer gives me nothing to do between sessions?
Ask. If the answer stays vague, you are paying for supervision rather than for a plan.
Come and see for yourself
A conversation costs nothing and answers more than any page.